🔗 Share this article

Just a quarter of an hour following the club issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a brief five-paragraph communication, the bombshell arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent anger.

In an extensive statement, major shareholder Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

This individual he convinced to join the team when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and required being in their place. And the figure he again turned to after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the severity of his takedown, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the organization, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous series of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Based on things he has expressed recently, O'Neill has been keen to get another job. He'll see this role as the ultimate chance, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a return to the place where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. The club might well make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the harsh manner Desmond described Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded attempt at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the cost of others," wrote he.

For a person who prizes decorum and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not complete secrecy, this was a further illustration of how abnormal things have become at the club.

Desmond, the club's dominant figure, operates in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the power to take all the important calls he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

He never participate in team annual meetings, sending his son, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And still, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to defend the club with private missives to news outlets, but no statement is heard in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And it's just what he went against when going full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

The official line from the team is that he resigned, but reviewing his invective, carefully, one must question why he permit it to get this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of every one of the accusations that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why was the coach not dismissed?

Desmond has accused him of distorting information in open forums that were inconsistent with the facts.

He says Rodgers' statements "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the club and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the management and the directors. Some of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an remarkable charge, that is. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we speak.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with the Club's Model Once More'

To return to better times, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers praised Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

It was the figure who took the heat when Rodgers' returned happened, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the return of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had his back. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the charm, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans turned into a love-in again.

There was always - always - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with the club's business model, though.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with added intensity, recently. He spoke openly about the sluggish process the team went about their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for targets to be landed, then missed, as was too often the situation as far as he was believed.

Time and again he stated about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the market. Supporters agreed with him.

Even when the club splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it so far, with Idah since having left - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, often, he did it in openly.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity within the team and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his next news conference he would typically minimize it and almost contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It looked like he was engaging in a risky game.

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that allegedly came from a source close to the organization. It said that the manager was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his departure plan.

He didn't want to be there and he was engineering his exit, that was the tone of the story.

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors wouldn't support his vision to bring triumph.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

At that point it was clear the manager was losing the support of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes